A research house they are quoting, SQM, is suggesting that rental growth is going to exceed inflation and that for the months of both January and February  there has been a continued decrease in vacancy rates nationally, with vacancy rates currently sitting at 1.7% of all available properties.

When you consider that the industry considers that a vacancy rate of 3% translates to full occupancy, because the 3% of dwellings that are left unoccupied reflect those properties that no one wants to live in, it fair to say that that either:

•    We have a looming shortage of housing (that has been spoken about for some time), or
•    We have a declining standard of what is the accepted minimum requirement for a rental property to attract a tenant